Easter will be a time of fun and feasting for many families, but thousands of pensioners in KZN will have nothing to eat at the weekend.
|||Easter will be a time of fun and feasting for many families, but thousands of pensioners in KZN will have nothing to eat at the weekend.
Many have been unable to collect their pensions because of changes to the payout system, and of those who did receive their meagre R1 200, hundreds were forced to buy goods before being paid.
The central paypoint in Durban closed at 2.30pm on Thursday for the holiday weekend, despite huge queues of people still waiting to get their grants.
Chaos erupted across the province earlier in the week when pensioners were told that they could no longer collect their pensions from post offices.
Outraged pensioners have reported that when trying to get their pensions from appointed outlets, they were told they had to spend up to R250 in the store before their money would be handed over.
In central Durban, bewildered pensioners said they had been directed from the post office to premises in Stalwart Simelane (Stanger) Street where a Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) paypoint had been set up.
The Independent on Saturday visited the paypoint, where long queues formed throughout the week. The queues contained pensioners as well as people waiting for child support and disability grants.
Heavily armed men guarded the door to the paypoint, with only five people allowed in at a time. Only two CPS employees were at the counter. Both appeared to be lethargic. The manager gave a dismissive wave of the hand, saying he was not allowed to talk to media, before disappearing into an office.
As the week progressed, stories started to emerge that a number of shops had CPS paypoints.
Beachfront pensioner Diane Abenant said she had tried to collect her pension from a cafe in Point Road but had been told she must spend R180 in the shop before her pension would be handed over.
“Why should I have to do that?” she asked. “Pensioners know there is going to be a re-registration process, and the minister told us on TV not to worry, but it was just chaos out there.”
She said on Friday she had still not managed to get her pension, despite several attempts, so would try again on Tuesday.
The SA Social Security Agency is responsible for pension payouts.
On Thursday, spokesman Mbizeni Mdlalalose said that the agency apologised for the inconvenience. “We will be working around the clock with our payment contractor CPS to make sure this will not happen again,” he said.
Before April, the agency had three service providers which were responsible for different provinces. CPS won the tender to become the sole distributor of grants in January. The contract to use post offices as paypoints was not renewed.
A process to tighten up the social grant system against fraud has been implemented, but the agency said that KZN recipients would only be required to participate in the enrolment in June and “can continue drawing their money the way they have been doing”.
It said that beneficiaries should not be forced to buy anything, and participating outlets were to provide full cash to them.
Political parties have slammed the confusion and disorder.
The Minority Front’s Shameen Rajbansi said her party had been helping queues of pensioners throughout the week.
“We will be taking this up at a national level. There was no co-ordination and it has impacted severely on the most vulnerable members of our society,” said Rajbansi.
The ANC’s KZN provincial secretary, Sihle Zikalala, said: “Our pensioners must have respect. We must intervene and assist with resolving these issues speedily.”
The DA’s Tex Collins said: “It is disgusting and insulting to our senior citizens, and is symptomatic of a government going pear-shaped, where cadre deployment and a lack of competency results in an inability to match the task at hand.
“It is also absolutely illegal for paypoints to try to force pensioners to spend money in their outlet.”
Enquiries and complaints about paypoints can be directed to: 0800 601 011 or 033 846 3300
Independent on Saturday